Background: The Levant is a crucial region in understanding human migrations between Africa and Eurasia. Although some mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) studies have been carried out in this region, they have not included the Jordan area. This paper deals with the mtDNA composition of two Jordan populations. Aim: The main objectives of this article are: first, to report mtDNA sequences of an urban and an isolate sample from Jordan and, second, to compare them with each other and with other nearby populations. Subjects and methods: The analyses are based on HVSI and HVSII mtDNA sequences and diagnostic RFLPs to unequivocally classify into haplogroups 101 Amman and 44 Dead Sea unrelated individuals from Jordan. Results: Statistical analysis revealed that, whereas the sample from Amman did not significantly differ from their Levantine neighbours, the Dead Sea sample clearly behaved as a genetic outlier in the region. Its outstanding Eurasian haplogroup U3 frequency (39%) and its south-Saharan Africa lineages (19%) are the highest in the Middle East. On the contrary, the lack ((preHV)1) or comparatively low frequency (J and T) of Neolithic lineages is also striking. Although strong drift by geographic isolation could explain the anomalous mtDNA pool of the Dead Sea sample, the fact that its mtDNA lineage composition mirrors, in geographic origin and haplogroup frequencies, its Y-chromosome pool, points to founder effect as the main cause. Ancestral M1 lineages detected in Jordan that have affinities with those recently found in Northwest but not East Africa question the African origin of the M1 haplogroup. Conclusion: Results are in agreement with an old human settlement in the Jordan region. However, in spite of the attested migratory spreads, genetically divergent populations, such as that of the Dead Sea, still exist in the area.

It is not a surprise that some postulate the existence of proto-Semites in Jordan before they spread and mix with other peoples in the Near East.Proto-Semites are considered to have both Caucasoid and Sub-Saharan blood.If they have a percentage of proto-Moderns' blood in their veins it will come as no surprise at all.After all the Ain Ghazal Neolithic site has given us skulls and skeletons which clearly reflect a mixed Caucasoid population.

terryt do you understand English or not?I wrote that proto-Semites were mixed Caucasoids with Negroids and perhaps with some archaic moderns.What does your argument about races has to do here?And by the way NO, not all races are mixed.Races exist and only in their outskirts exist some admixture in general.Otherwise humankind would have been like Brazil!Also the biggest majority of the various peoples that made their premiere in History were pure racially in contrast with the Semites.Alarodians, proto-Indoeuropeans, proto-Hurrians, and numerous others.

Joe. I would have thought it was obvious Semites are a mixture of Caucasian and African genes. I was expressing surprise at your thinking it was worth specifically mentioning it.

Are you saying that proto-Indo-Europeans, proto-Hurrians, etc. were not simply the product of earlier admixture? I thought it was generally accepted that the Hurrians, for example, had at least a ruling class that had some connection to Indo-Europeans. And where did proto-Indo-Europeans come from in the first place? Were they proto-Indo-Europeans when they first left Africa? And had they remained a genetic isolate all that time?

I would bet that human groups have been moving around the world, mixing and breeding since the days of Homo erectus. It's just that tribalism is a basic part of our mentality and has had a major effect during our evolution.

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